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OCE-84-8 1 (1984-09-27)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabnnj0001 and id is 1 raw text is:                                                                Igod
                      COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES
                               WASHINGTON D.C.


                                             SEPTEMBER 27,1984
                     125452
B-213348


The Honorable Lowell Weicker.           ,...                       .
United States Senate

The Honorable Nancy L. Johnson       RELEASED
House of Representatives

     Subject: Comparison of Estimates of Effects of Fair
               Insurance Practices Act on Women's Insurance
               Costs (GAO/OCE-84-8)

     In separate letters dated July 28, 1983, and August 2, 1983,
respectively, you requested that we comment on divergent esti-
mates of the effect on women's insurance costs of S. 372, the
proposed Fair Insurance Practices Act (unisex insurance). As
you know, we have analyzed the general nature of these effects in
our recent report, Economic Implications of the Fair Insurance
Practices Act (GAO/OCE-84-1, April 6, 1984). As agreed with
your offices, we did not begin work on your request until after
our earlier report was completed. This report discusses the two
sets of estimates cited in Senator Weicker's letter--those pre-
pared by the National Organization for Women (NOW), which sup-
ports the bill, and by the Insurance Services Office (ISO), which
opposes it. Table 1 shows the NOW and ISO estimates of the
typical differences between premiums paid by males and females
in the various lines of insurance under current pricing
practices.1

     We conclude, first, that the concept of a typical woman is
ambiguous. Different interpretations of the meaning of typical
produce different estimates of the effects of the bill, and to
some extent each of the estimates presented in table 1 uses a
definition of typical which produces a result favorable to the
position of the organization preparing the estimate.



1The implication of the estimates is that these differences
would be eliminated if S. 372 were enacted. Eliminating the
difference between premiums paid by men and premiums paid by
women would not mean that the new unisex premiums paid by women
would be $15,732 lower (NOW's estimate) or $8,455 higher (ISO's
estimate) than they are now. Because the new unisex premium
would most likely fall somewhere between the current premium for
men and the current premium for women, the effect of the bill on
raising or lowering premiums for women would be less than the
current differential between men's and women's premiums.


                                           )(972120)

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